U.S. Pat. No. 5,924,090 discloses a method and apparatus for searching databases by organizing the data contained therein into categories and sub-categories, or lists, such as entry lists or value lists. This invention uses a complex categorization or clustering methodology to first generate a search result list, and then to cluster the results into relevant categories. The clustering step itself involves a complex series of processes, such as: (1) generating a list of candidate categories based on matching subject type, source and language characteristics of the query and result lists; (2) weighting each candidate category as a function of the identified common characteristics of the records within the candidate category; and (3) graphically displaying a subset of said categories.
The process described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,924,090 is complex and does not provide a mechanism to avoid null results. Further, it employs a grouping processor to perform the clustering functions. There is no teaching as to how to avoid null responses. Nor is there any teaching that discloses how to reach the instant invention by relying on text-retrieval software that does not require the correlating and weighting of search categories. Nor does this reference allow the user to follow the progress of the various search steps by displaying the steps on the monitor. The importance of this to the instant invention will become clear in the examples provided below.
The method described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,537,586 employs a different method to extract preferred sets of records from a database. This method employs assignments of priority values to categories, and database entries are in turn, prioritized with respect to each category. The priority values assigned are a function of the user's history of searches. Thus, the relevance of the set of entries to a category, and the priority of the category itself undergo constant modification. Subsets of entries are then displayed. This method does not teach displaying all relevant values that comprise search results to a particular query. Further, there is no teaching on the avoidance of a null result.
As described below, the invention is distinguishable from '586, because it does not employ hierarchies of relevance and priorities in displaying search results. Instead, the invention displays database entries, and in response to a search term or an operator, continuously updates the databases to display all possible entries that can positively fulfill the operation. In this way the user avoids null results.
Similarly, other searching methods have included complex steps for handling null values. U.S. Pat. No. 6,006,225 employs correlations between specific search terms and their frequency of appearance in a specific query, to suggest related terms to the user. These related terms are added to, and selected from a look-up table of query log files, thus guaranteeing that the modified queries will not produce a null result. Similarly, U.S. Pat. No. 5,905,982 employs correlations that are applied to various attributes to database categories in processing SQL queries. Neither of these references simplifies the search process by a simple editing of the available database. Nor do these references disclose the importance of a user visibly monitoring the search process in order to avoid the nullity.
Accordingly, there is a need in the art for a method of displaying the results of database searches so that it can be adapted for use with various kinds of databases that normally are organized categories and sub-categories. Further, another useful object of the invention is to provide a method for avoiding null results, that does not require the accrual of search histories but that functions as efficiently the first time, as it will on subsequent occasions. As stated above, this cannot be achieved by correlation and weighting software. The prior art methods rely upon users being repeat database searchers, thus developing a query history. Thus another object of this invention, is that the search is performed using a simple text-retrieval software program to choose entries, and eliminate irrelevant terms.
Another object of the invention is to describe a display apparatus capable of manipulating and displaying the updated entry lists or value lists to provide a user-friendly graphic interface for implementing the present invention.